Comments on: 10 Dialogue Mistakes That Instantly Sound Fake https://traciejoy.com/2026/07/21/dialogue-mistakes/ Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:41:15 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 By: Tracie https://traciejoy.com/2026/07/21/dialogue-mistakes/#comment-1498 Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:41:15 +0000 https://traciejoy.com/?p=17693#comment-1498 In reply to T. M. Shannon.

I did a piece yesterday on dialogue tags vs. action beats which may help https://traciejoy.com/2026/07/20/dialogue-tags-vs-action-beats/
I’d love to hear what your beta readers end up saying. Are they getting confused about who’s speaking, or is it more that everyone sounds too similar?”

I get how hard it is though. You’re setting the scene. This is how they meet. It’s IMPORTANT! I truly feel your pain.

]]> By: T. M. Shannon https://traciejoy.com/2026/07/21/dialogue-mistakes/#comment-1497 Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:27:05 +0000 https://traciejoy.com/?p=17693#comment-1497 My romance’s opening scene was 15 pages formatted featuring a full boy meets girl conversation

My manuscript assessor said I could tell the boring bits – it’s now 8 pages

But my main issue is voice and tags, esp. when there’s 3 or more characters, something for my betas to tear apart

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